Page 74 of Renard's Deliverance

And then he was going to make their lives a fucking misery.

Opal desperately wantedto ask why he cared so much when this was just a short-term thing . . . but she didn’t want him to stop caring. So she kept her mouth shut.

She’d agreed to the short-term, no strings attached thing, and she wasn’t going to go back on it.

It was easy.

Uncomplicated.

It meant that she got her needs met without having to curtail her independence.

The only issue was that Opal was pretty certain she wanted complicated.

“I was living in a bad situation before I came to Haven. Guess you might have heard some of it?”

“Heard that Lilac’s brother was a bad guy and was trying to find the three of you.”

“Yeah. Stefan Masters. Lilac was his sister. Ryleigh was his fiancée and I was his whore.”

“Right, that’s one.”

“One what?” she asked.

“Punishment. I told you the rule. Gave you a warning. Once your back is feeling better, your butt is in a whole heap of trouble.”

“But that was the truth.”

“Now you’re at two.”

“What? Seriously?” she exclaimed.

“You might want to be careful about what you say next.”

“You don’t understand the situation, though.”

“So explain it to me,” he urged.

“Stefan was a really bad guy. A narcissist for sure. He had so much charm when he wanted to, though. When he turned his attention on you, you felt like you were his world. And it was hard to see anyone else. I was completely fooled by him. Taken in by smooth words and empty promises. He could read a person like no one else. He knew just what to say to get me to fall into his trap.”

“How did you meet him?” he asked.

This part was hard to say. “I was in a bad place. I was working in a strip club as a waitress. I didn’t strip, but I was close to doing it. There’s no shame in stripping if that’s what you want to do,” she said hotly.

“Did I say anything against stripping?”

No, he hadn’t.

“Sorry. Guess I’m just used to people condemning me for my choices. Thing is, I didn’t really want to do it. I was just getting desperate. My tips were good but I . . . I owed a debt I was having to pay off.”

“A debt? For what?”

“It was my mom’s,” she admitted. “She took drugs. She hadn’t had an easy life, and she was just searching for a way out. When she couldn’t pay any longer, the guy she owed money to beat her up.”

“Fuck. Baby,” he whispered.

“I know I should have cut her off, but she was my mom. When that asshole told me that he’d be back and things would get much worse if we didn’t have the money, I told him I’d pay it off.”

“I hate that you were dealing with scum like that.”

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